Although not that bad, the Overlord DLC add-on for Mass Effect 2 certainly leaves something to be desired in terms of length, gameplay, and story. It’s, well, just not that good.
The game starts with a message indicating that Cerberus has not heard from one of its research facilities on planet Aita in the Typhon sector. You head there and discover that one of the experiments has gone awry. As a result of trying to fuse a human with a virtual intelligence system, a dangerous hybrid, the “VI overlord,” was created and has taken over the facility. It has killed most of the facility’s occupants and is now trying to upload itself off of the planet to wreak further havoc. Shepard and his crew must stop it.
Bioware excelled in telling the side stories of your squad members in Mass Effect 2, showing that it can tell discreet, smaller stories in an engaging way. The storytelling in Overlord is, unfortunately, much less even. The beginning several missions are completely unengaging. They pretty much only set forth the synopsis that Bioware posted about the DLC before it was released. The story finally takes on an engaging and emotional component in the very last mission. At that point, there is finally a reward that feels up to the Mass Effect pedigree, as far as the story, for trudging through the first several missions. And you must make a significant, yet difficult decision. Now that’s the quintessential Mass Effect experience that I was seeking. It just took too long to get there. And that’s saying something, given that Overlord should only take you about two and a half hours to beat.
But that’s part of the problem, Overlord just doesn’t feel like it warrants a separate download costing $7. As mentioned, the story does not even feel like it starts to happen until the very end. The content is very short. And there’s nothing unique or interesting about the combat. At least in the Kasumi DLC you earned a new playable character with a new ability. Here’s there’s nothing to feed into the main game experience except a few upgrades to your heavy weapon ammo capacity and your research (if you have not maxed out all research paths yet).
What is different is that this is the first paid content incorporating the new hovercraft armored assault vehicle introduced in the free Firewalker DLC, the Hammerhead. Unfortunately, that actually further detracts from the Overlord experience. Although, thankfully, Bioware scaled back the amount of vehicular combat in Overlord as compared to Firewalker, the combat that does exist is just not enjoyable. Aim at turrets from far away either peaking just over a hill to fire and then hiding to avoid fire, or fire at the turrets while jumping and scurrying around to avoid the turret fire. Completely one-dimensional combat with not a lot of strategic options. That was my objection to the vehicular combat in Firewalker too — it just does not feel like a worthy combat experience compared to the complicated and strategic non-vehicular combat in Mass Effect 2.
Credit must be given to Bioware, however, because the level design in the outside levels of Overlord requiring use of the vehicle far surpasses that in Firewalker, which felt much too platformery for me. There are some beautiful vistas (that the game tongue-in-cheek, suggests you might check out) and the landscape felt more natural and less forced. There is also a combat sequence that involves some strategic dodging in the vehicle that actually made me believe for a few minutes that combat could be fun in the Hammerhead. That being said, there were also a few sequences where you had to jump across platforms floating down pools of lava. Mario this is not, and these segments took me back to my Firewalker moments of disdain for incorporating platforming elements into the Mass Effect franchise.
Unless you’re just starving for new Mass Effect content and have already played through the game multiple times, I would suggest saving your money. Overlord is just not worth the $7 admission price for the short two and a half hour experience, weak storytelling (at least until the very end), and incorporation of drab vehicular combat. Sadly, I would suggest that someone buy one of the weapon/armor add-ons for Mass Effect 2 over Overlord because at least then you get something unique to use in the main game experience. However, the last mission is very engaging and the non-vehicular combat is what you expect from Mass Effect 2. So if you really want to extend your experience with this game, this DLS may be for you.
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